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In the last heart-wrenching chapter Imperial Princess Taegan allowed herself to be captured by one of a gang of brutal Space Pirates who had boarded the desolate Imperial Watch Station in orbit around planet Eratus Est of the Draco star system, as she was carried off aboard a stolen Imperial Class II Scorpion rocket as gallant Galacteer Commander Lightyear of the Lightyear Brigade was forced to watch on along with the rest of the Space Pirates the treacherous four-armed Kutila named Xasaphrax tossed a live grenade into the docking port! Which terrible fate has befallen noble Commander Lightyear? To be marooned with murderous pirates or a swift explosive death?

“See you all in the afterlife you scudge swilling zwilniks”
With a cruel laugh the mottled reptiloid tossed the live grenade, slamming closed the aluminiglass and goldrantium hood down and pulled the rocket swiftly away.

The grenade bounced and skittered across the docking bay right into the corridor where Commander Lightyear and the Pirates had watched the departure of the treacherous Xasaphrax coming to rest right at Lightyear’s feet! As the pirates stared in stunned and fatal shock Lightyear, with his superior strength from years spent as a child growing acclimatised on a high-gravity world; the superior reflexes of Galacteer training and the skills of split-second decision-making that comes from mastering the break-neck speed of the Galacteer Class 1 Comet Rocket leapt into instant action!

It’s out everybody!
The infantry scale game of action and adventure from the creative team of geniuses and artists behind War Rocket! With playtesting and some fiction contributions by those of us here at My War Rocket Blog!

Be entranced by the Valkeeri Empress! Shudder in fear at the Hordes of the Robot Legion! Battle Wicked Tyrants side by side with Ace McGuire, Jane Hunter, Rocky Rizzo, Dr Zahn and Cadet Skippy! Enjoy a fast paced elegant rules system designed for Narrative and Fun gaming that can hold up to the needs of seasoned wargamers with decades of experience and novice players alike! (We know cause we tested it on both!)http://shop.hydraminiatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=166

Get it now and begin your own exciting adventures! And of course expect to see even more of the thrilling Retroverse here as the adventures and serial stories of our own games will continue!

Check your charge-capacitors, turn all the dials to maximum and pull those levers and launch into the adventure of Yesterday’s Tomorrow Today!

And i’m pleased to say that several of those involved in the My War Rocket Blog have been able to contribute to the new infantry scale game. I, Bayne, was asked by Hydra to write fiction for the scenarios in the book and all my regular War Rocket players who had even a shred of free time; Taphyl, Commander Whitestar, Jason and Miriam have joined me as one of the playtest teams giving feedback to Hydra Miniatures and helping them to polish their excellent work. Taphyl especially contributed hugely to the feedback we were able to give Hydra from gameplay and balance to proofreading and rules explanation and Commander Whitestar also went above and beyond editing my fiction drafts whenever they were done at all hours of the night and day.

So keep your eye on the Hydra website http://hydraminiatures.com/ because in just a short amount of days you’ll be able to bring your Retroverse Adventures to the ground as well as the skies and stars!

Captain Shulme ran his fingers through his beard as he scanned the rocky landscape and the ruined ancient buildings of the world Iratus Est Draco below, looking for any sign of the missing Princess Taegan. Even if they find her there was evidence from the Valkeeri that there was a chance a pod-person clone had replaced the real Princess, but Emperor Marduk is all-seeing and a counterfeit would not fool the Princesses’ father. The orders were to scour every mile of the surface of the worlds in this system, find the Princess and take her to her father. The Valkeeri had struck the watchstation orbiting Iratus Est draco in force and so it wasn’t surprising when Kurush called from the radarscope of clear readings of Valkeeri rocket-pulses. They were headed towards one of the ruined cities, like all those in this system it was smashed with what seemed to be atomic warfare and abandoned so many millenia ago that not a trace of radioactivity remained, there must be something there of value.

What were the Alien women up to? And did it have anything to do with the Zenithian towers, the weakening sun or the missing Princess? He would wring the information from the survivors!

“All rockets: Intercept and attack!”

I got a call from Taphyl during the week asking if I was up for another game of War Rocket and for showing our friend Mirium how to play. So I quickly gathered my things together, remembering my camera this time, and went round for an afternoon/evening of gaming socialising and a very nice dinner. Mirium had some job applications to do first so we started with a small game between Taphyl and I.

In the last chapter we learned of what had become of Captain Atrius and met the fiendish man-machine Dr Axon as the Magi of the Empire determined to search for the heart of the MacGuffinite engine complex threatening the galaxy. Now we return to Princess Taegan, Commander Lightyear and Captain Woz as they approach the Imperial Watch-Station orbiting Iratus Est Draco in a battered Zenithian Beta-Z saucer…

In the round room under the scuffed and scratched alumini-glass dome that kept out the cold deadly vacuum of space our three unlikely companions anxiously watch for their eyes to see what their poorly-functioning instruments appeared to have detected. Their goal, the Imperial Watch Station and a chance to warn the galaxy about the Zenithian pod-people plot! As once before in the past when faced with having to cooperate in order to survive in the Caverns of Yo-go the Princess and Commander Lightyear have been dealing with stress with.. political discussion.

“Surely Princess you must recognise that without Democracy people aren’t truly free.”

Both Lightyear and Taegan seemed oblivious to Woz’s groan and facepalm as they went at it again.

“On the contrary Commander. We have examined your democracy and found it as deeply flawed as our own past attempts. Corruption is rife, inequality becomes entrenched, there’s constant social turmoil as the majority tries to find minorities to rob and oppress for their own gain and those minorities then must strive to get their fair share they were supposed to be guaranteed from the start. In your democracies people with the most merit don’t end up in the position of best suitability instead the most important positions are filled determined by those most suited to politics and the hedonistic enjoyment or lack thereof of the position.”

“Your vassals are slaves by another name, the Empire is a strictly tiered system, besides, are you saying that I am not suited to my position Princess?”

“No, the case of the military proves the point, your military isn’t a democracy it just serves one.”

“And the empire doesn’t have problems with Nepotism when it’s high ranks are filled with princes and princesses? I don’t see any Dragon-men Generals.”

As tones became heated the Galacteer commander and Imperial Princess turned away from the cold stars to face one another, cheeks growing flushed and eyes sparkling as they fought.

“Simply because my father’s blood is full of strength and he chooses his concubines well. We each still have to fight to prove our loyalty and skill and worthiness for the positions we hold. The children of his Dragon-women consorts have as much chance to advance as I did. You see, a Benevolent Tyranny is the most stable form of government and ensures the freedom of people in unity, they rise or fall in place based on their merits and each contributes to the strength of all from the greatest general to the merest street-sweeper all through the unity under one continuous strong and wise ruler.”

“Even were I to accept that assessment, that’s all well and good for now, but…”

“Hey!” Interjected Woz.

“.. even with whatever the Emperor uses to keep himself so long-lived there’s no certainty that he won’t eventually die through accident, some unknown disease or even one of your siblings proving to be his match and overthrowing him and what then for the stable state? A Democracy is adaptable, tyranny benevolent or otherwise often collapse destructively or tear themselves apart once the tyrant is dead.”
“Hey!” Woz said louder this time.

“But that is beyond unlikely. Why even if i acknowledge the possibility purely hypothetically well..”

“HEY!” Cried Woz putting his hand on the tops of both their heads and turning them towards him ignoring the dangerous flash in the Princesses eyes at his daring to put his hands on her. He pointed outside. “Look!”Continue reading →

Note: this blogpost was drafted over a year ago! A lot of events have disrupted blogging and especially editing and publishing, some of these are awesome and exiting and others have been tough and challenging. But the backlog of battle reports and fiction will be filled in as time permits and there will be lots of new stuff to come!

The Valkeeri Commander in Absentia looked through the file from the spy amongst the Imperial ranks. The poor deluded lovesick fool would do anything just to see the face of Sub-Captain Mira Hati smile on the encoded spaceophone screen and as always the information was invaluable. Fleet Captain Zimara, current leader of the Valkeeri forces of House St’wart in this region of space was still alive! Captured by the Imperial forces after she had convinced the Imperial fools into helping her get her vengeance on the Zenithians for replacing the previous Fleet Captain with a pod-person clone copy hypno-programmed into leading Valkeeri forces into making bad decisions that would have crippled them had the subterfuge not been discovered by superior Valkeeri art-science. But even someone as headstrong and wilful as Fleet Captain Zimara might break under the cruel and ruthless hands of the Empire and their barbaricly brutal mind-probes. They were holding her in a small spacestation towed in and set in orbit around the planet Iratus Est Draco, one world out away from the strangely unstable sun, named Draco by the ancients, from the mysterious MacGuffinite rich world of Dormientes Draco. To safeguard the Valkeeri secrets they needed to rescue her, to find what she may have learned of the Zenithian plans they must rescue her, for loyalty they must rescue her!

This week I didn’t make it in to the Sleeping Dragon store as I, and others, had to catch up with some people socially. But in the afternoon Taphyl and I played at his house. Continuing on from the tale of vengeance last week Taphyl was quite enthusiastic when I suggested a mission to rescue the survivors from the last game now helplessly in my clutches (Mua-Ha-Ha-Haaaaaaa!). Alas I forgot my camera but Taphyl had one handy so on we went!

The battlefield incorporating Dormientes Draco and it’s neighbour Iratus Est Draco.(“Hey look, they put the moon back in on Dormientes Draco, call the continuity police!”“Shhh stop talking over the movie!”)

Battle report continues after this break (i.e. click ‘continue reading’ to see the rest)Continue reading →

In the last chapter, Princess Taegan escaped from the Dino-Men and sent Captain Atrius and her surviving warriors to secure and study the strange devices under the Zenithian Towers, then allowed herself to be captured by Zenithian troops in order to discover their plans. Finding that several key commanders from Galacteer and Space Pirate Fleets had been replaced by Pod People clones, she and the original commander prisoners plan to escape the Zenithian imprisonment. Can they get word to their fleets? Will traditional animosity turn them against one another? Let’s watch on and find out!

In a darkened room, a silhouetted figure upon a grand art-deco throne watches an image with a faintly luminous single open eye ripple to life on an ornate screen of polished obsidian held aloft by stylised golden Sirrush. The on-screen image seems to be as if through the very eyes of someone holding aloft an earring as a door beside them opens…

Everyone shielded their eyes as the cell door opened and Princess Taegan threw the ruby earring through the door to the floor as a flash grenade. With a burst of light, the Zenithian clones were blinded! Not even waiting to open her eyes, Princess Taegan whirled through the guards with her Goldrantium and Tling-steel stiletto. It wasn’t just the beloved pet Vyper-Bat she had brought back from the ever-nighted forest moon of Eth, but also years of training in fighting in low-light and total darkness thanks to the tutorship of the witch-women of the temple of Ishtanna with which they bought a peaceful transition to Imperial protection and more flexibility to the usual Imperial vassal rule, becoming personal subjects of the Princess.

By the time Commander Jason of the Star Command; Commander Lightyear of the Lightyear Brigade and Pirate Captain Woz of the Draco Raiders had uncovered their eyes – prepared to fight – the four clones were already on the floor!Continue reading →

Chapter 4: The Tower of Treachery!Where we left our heroic Imperial Forces, Captain Atrius had just rescued Princess Taegan from the Temple of the Dino Men and we follow them now as they flee from stone-age reptile pursuers into the tunnels beneath The Tower of Treachery!

Princess Taegan and Captain Atrius ran at full speed down the corridor of the secret stone Labyrinth, behind the strange reptilian Idol of the troglodytic dino-men to catch up with the two other Imperial survivors of the disastrous battle with the Zenithians.

“Atrius” Princess Taegan panted as she ran, used to having given commands in combat situations, she timed her words with the breathing required to keep her muscles powered for distance running.

“Yes my Princess?” Atrius responded, his deep voice showing none of the exertion of the activity.

“Should I be offended or take as a compliment that both of the two tribes of Dino-men on this forsaken world have tried to sacrifice me to their stone gods?”

“Clearly, my Princess, it is a sign they recognise enough of your greatness and beauty as to see you as the most valuable and worthy of us to give to their god and a sign of their blindness that they don’t covet your beauty enough to defy their god and don’t see enough of your strength and cunning and wisdom to just fall at your feet and worship you in its stead.”

Princess Taegan thought of two different reprimands for Atrius’s excessive flattery but discarded each, then decided too much time had passed for her to bother. Though she couldn’t help but smile both at the compliment and at the recent memory of the furious face of the dino-man high priest as his stone god’s decapitated head crushed the thin bridge he was standing on plunging him into the lava below.

A little bit of fiction for your enjoyment 🙂 (Which i started writing ages ago and only remembered to finish the other day. This story relates to the game reported back in November )

A musical chime, the result of notes of electronic perfection projected through a delicate crystal in the eyes of a brass and gold gryphon-dragon statue set into the wall, sounding as beautifully cold and deadly as the Empire itself, took Princess Taegan from her astrographic calculations. She pressed the concealed switch behind the Gryphon-dragons ear in a way that looked like she was caressing the fierce snarling metal beast.

“Bring in the scouting scorpions and prepare to intercept!” she turned from the sculpture, the luminous crystals that glowed as they emitted sound fading as she switched off the communicator. With efficient grace she donned her ceremonial cape and buckled on her atomic pistol and her Tling-steel electric sword, merely the obvious and visible weapons she carried on her person. As she stepped past the golden ornate perch in the corner of the cramped but comparatively luxurious cabin she raised her hand, a gesture as automatic as the response of the deadly hand reared vyper-bat of the forest moon of Eth that slithered onto her arm coiling its long sinuous form about her wrist.

Princess Taegan took her seat in the rose-gold command chair of the Raptor, the viper-bat Atalleph burying its head in the dark folds of her cape.

“Report, Captain Atrius”

Captain Atrius, nodded, his face as dark and broodingly handsome as ever in direct contrast to the Princesses paler steely sharpness. “Princess Taegan, our numbers are even, it is a Class 2 Stiletto and 3 class 1 Daggers coming in fast from the other side of Dormientes Draco. They have detected us and changed their course to meet us head on.”

“And their original trajectory…?”

“The moon Princess, just as before.”

“The moon, the single moon of Dormientes Draco. Several times we have had to fight the pirates here. Why is it so important to them? Whatever can there be on that moon that they are after?” Princess Taegan clenched her long fingers around the control levers of the Raptor, the tense grip paling them even further. The engines roared as the small Imperial Fleet rushed towards the enemy and battle was engaged…

*************

Sparks flew from shorting circuits as fire poured smoke into the Rockets cabin. Captain Atrius sprayed retardant foam from the golden dragon-mouthed nozzle of an extinguisher amphora while soldiers were passing about replacement breathing apparatus cylinders and filters to everyone, a necessity till the air purifier was able to catch up with all the particles of ash and the excess of carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses from the fire. Engineer Gilgan had managed to restart the atomic engine but until the control circuits wiring was repaired the Raptor would still be tumbling gently in orbit around the moon at the mercy of the Space Pirates. Princess Taegan stood silent and still amidst the chaos, standing as if in defiance of the elements; in defiance of the chaotic winds of the raptors defeat. One hand balled into a furious fist and the other clutching under her arm protectively the deadly vyper-bat in the spherical alumini-glass container she used to transport it through space in boarding operations. She had but a simple air filter on, having waved away the protesting Captain Atrius and insisted that the air canisters go to those whose expertise would most swiftly return the rocket to function, or at least capable of keeping them alive ‘till the reinforcements arrived.

As the smoke cleared, Captain Atrius returned to the instrument panels of the Raptor.

“Princess, there is a transmission coming in from the Space Pirates!”

Taegan slammed her fist against the Golden-bordered red metal of the wall.

“They have cut us to pieces and we didn’t take out a single of their number! I don’t need to tell you how unacceptable this is. We will not surrender or negotiate terms. If they want us they can kill us from there or they can board us and let us kill them with our very own hands!”

“They aren’t asking for surrender Princess…. they want to negotiate an alliance!”

*************

The warriors of the Imperium stood at the airlock of the slowly tumbling Raptor resplendent in their Red, Gold and Black armour. Captain Atrius showing his rank with the gleaming skull faceplate of his helmet hiding his brooding dark eyes and dark olive skin beneath a grinning emblem of the power of the emperor, while Princess Taegan wore a tight-fitting armoured spacesuit of glossy black with more subtle golden decoration of rank and privilege, her Dark auburn hair pulled back from her face with a golden tiara was sealed into a alumini-glass bubble surrounding her head, the sphere containing the viper-bat tethered to her waist. Through the round porthole in the ships hatch the pirate Stiletto could be seen matching their velocity and rotation till they tumbled gently in perfect unison on parallel courses a matter of feet away. One by one the Imperial warriors leapt from the door of the Raptor to the other rocket, holding onto the hull of the pirate vessel with a magna-grapple before making their way into the other vessels hatch. Where the Raptors hatch was designed for defence in boarding with its single person doorway the pirate rocket the Stiletto needs to carry stolen cargo as much as battle and the big broad hatch that opened was large enough for Taegan and her bodyguards to enter at once side by side.

The Space Pirate interior was very different to an Imperial craft, austere and practical but with a Spartan elegance of its own, dominated by a harsh regular thrumming from the rockets engine. The cargo space was well stocked with well-armed pirates in shiny black one-piece uniforms, but no-one on either side gave the other reason to brandish their implements of atomic death. They were cautiously escorted past the tiny crew cabins to the Control room. The Pirate Commander sat in a large swivel chair in the centre of the room in front of a crescent of controls, the great domed alumini-glass behind him filled with the moving star field they had been battling under. Tall and thin but with clear wiry strength, dressed in the same glossy black but for a red triangle on his chest matching that on the rocket, he regarded the Imperials with shrewd confidant eyes.

“Welcome Princess Taegan, I am Captain Woz. I’m sorry for the limited hospitality on my rocket but I’m sure you understand it’s not built for comfort.”

“I’m rather surprised to receive any Captain Woz. You were trying to kill me such a short time ago.”

“Ah well circumstances change, and I am ever one to change with them. Like a sailor of old changing course with the changing winds eh? I must say that I was surprised to find you alive at that, I had counted your rocket destroyed at first, but I am pleased to have been thwarted in that.”

“So what was it that changed your mind?”

“One part the Imperial reinforcements arriving shortly; two parts of combined bad…the Zenithians working with Valkeeri, and three parts – heading this way!”

“What? Why we had scouting reports observing a conflict between Zenithians and Valkeeri in this sector recently… why would they suddenly work together?”

“That is my question too Princess. I can imagine everything from them coming to a formal truce; to the Valkeeri successfully seducing the Zenithian commander; to the Zenithians developing some kind of mind-control ray that works on Valkeeri – but all that is just fancy. We won’t know till we crack open some of their rockets and take a peek inside. Besides, whatever the answer, it isn’t a good thing that these two have joined forces and are coming here to Dormientes Draco. They will outnumber either of us even with your reinforcements… unless we too work together.”…..

Hydra is a small company, so understandably they release things at a slower pace than the big companies and so have a smaller range. So i totally expect much of what i am about to list to be unfeasable and most is likely unrealistic. It’s just about what i’d love to see come out for War Rocket and Retro Raygun with little regard to practicality, which is of course what wishlisting is all about 🙂

War Rocket:

* Gun Emplacements (small resin dome like an astronomical observatory with some retro scifi detailing that should fit any faction with a choice of three sizes of metal raygun barrels, the two unused would be great for customising rockets)

* A Freighter for each faction,

* A (civilian/slave/troop) Transport Rocket for each faction

* Custom Rocket Conversion Kit (simple small pieces to add to rockets that are easy to glue to any spare surface on a rocket such as existing class 4 gun turrets, Galacteer wing thrusters, Imperial thrusters, some generic nozzles, guns, ramspikes)

* War Rocket scale Rocket Troops (3+ 6mm scale figures in flying pose attached to a base by long plumes of smoke to use as a counter to show a rocket is under Rocket Troop attack)

* Space Station Detail Kit (some more generic retro scifi detail pieces similar to mothership idea to make it easy to build space stations from common household items like plastic bottles and plastic jars or blocks of balsa or polystyrene etc)

* Imperial decorative kit (several small art-deco dragon-gryphons, dragon-gryphon snarling heads and tower-tops for decorating home-made Imperial towers, ziggurats, bases stations and gun turrets, and could even be put on a class 3 or 4 rocket)

* Big retro-scifi Space/Flying Monster/s

* Terror-Dactyls 😀

* Mysterious Derelict (Class 3 size resin and metal Rocket of a generic style, with significant damage and showing a little exposed internal detail from a rent in its hull, that attaches to the stand at an angle to look more floating)

* Space Torpedos in the cool war rocket retro styling

Retro Raygun:

* Emperor Marduk himself

* Imperial Vassal Troops, these would be figures in Imperial uniforms both male and at least one female, with seperate heads and optional back pieces some with tails to make: Dragon-Men (Dragonish head, wings-and-tail backpiece), Worm-men (worm head, worm tail), Cat-Men (cat head, cat tail), Ape-Men (ape head) and generic backpacks for those that don’t have special ones. These could be got with one of each head/back variation in a pack or packs of all the same sort.

* Galacteer Alien Recruits, as above and compatible with above with Galacteer uniforms both male and at least one female and compatible with the above to make: Lion-men (lion head, tail), Bird-men (Head, Wings), Frog-Men (head), Squid-men (head)

* Galacteer Women Troops (as not only wont they let the men get all the fun, they sure wont let the Valkeeri just waltz in and steal all the best looking men either, and many women will be immune to the Valkeeri charms, so a few more non-character Galacter women would be nice to mix through the current guys)

* Zenithians

* Zenithian Androids (robots of a different style to the legion)

* Zenithian Infiltrators (pod-people! Pod-People!)

* Valkeeri’s enslaved men servants

* Princess for Rescuing (should come in three poses, one in chains still captured, one escaping in running pose, one looking all regal for escort rather than rescue missions)

* Prince for Rescuing (because it’s not always Princesses that need rescuing, because romantic love interests might be princes or princesses, because if you are rescuing royalty captured by the Valkeeri they are much more likely to have taken the Prince than the Princess etc, poses as above)

* Hostages (a Galacteer, an Imperial and a Valkeeri civilian in chains handcuffs or tied up)

* Space Pirates

* Space Pirate Veterans

* pdfs of floor plans for the interior of class 2-4 rockets of each faction for retro raygun games to be played on.

The Extreme:

* 3d-printed retro raygun scale class 1 and 2 rockets for people to have to fight their way to or from or around or just to hang from their ceiling or decorate their desks/shelves/store windows

* custom war-rocket dice with an explosion for the 10 and the logo from the main rulebook page numbers for the 1 and an appropriate font for the remaining numbers

* plastic bubble-dome helmeted troops

*bubble-dome helmeted brain with a humanoid robot body and one with just a flying mechanism body

* Zenithian Cloning Tank (clear plastic in metal frame tank holding growing baby Zenithian hanging from top of tank by umbilical [Rafm and Black Cat Bases have similar things but i have no idea how easy it is to source the plastic for the tubes and it’d be an objective or scenery so i’m putting it in this section])